Saturday

Apr 20, 2019 | 7pm

Join the BDC for a screening of the award-winning documentary City of Ghosts. Directed, produced, and filmed by Academy Award–nominated and Emmy–winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman, City of Ghosts tells the story of a group of Syrian civilian journalists, who call themselves Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, risking their lives to document the atrocities committed by ISIS in their homeland.

Join us for post-screening discussion with Abdalaziz Alhamza, co-founder of the citizen journalist collective Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently featured in the documentary. Moderated by journalist Rozina Ali.

BIOSABDALAZIZ ALHAMZA is an award-winning Syrian journalist, human rights defender activist and IT trainer. He is the founder and spokesperson of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) which is a nonpartisan, independent organization that exposes the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime, ISIS & other groups in Syria. Abdalaziz started non-volatile protests and demonstrations against the Syrian regime in 2011 and was arrested by the regime three times in 2012. The Islamic State Group (ISIS) interrogated him more than one time about his activism. After ISIS took control of his hometown, Raqqa in January 2014, he escaped to Turkey and started RBSS with his friends to show the reality of life in Raqqa and ISIS. Abdalaziz is a member of The NewNow, a group of rising leaders committed to achieving change in their communities and beyond.ROZINA ALI is a journalist based in New York. She writes about on the War on Terror, Islamophobia, Middle East and South Asia, and culture. She was previously on the editorial staff of The New Yorker and was a senior editor at the Cairo Review of Global Affairs in Egypt from 2013 and 2015. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera America, Foreign Policy, Cairo Review and others.

This event is held in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition Cities in Dust: Victor J. Blue on view at the BDC Annex April 4-21, 2019.